Man’s search for meaning is fundamental to what makes us human. Yet we live in a culture that encourages us to set this search aside when it comes to work and business. In this episode, my guest and I are talking about here book The Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life That Matters.

We talk about the four pillars of finding and creating meaning in your business and in life.The Power of Meaning

The Four Pillars:

Belonging

Purpose

Story Telling

Transcendence

I would love to hear your comments, questions and especially how you find meaning in your life.

Emily Esfahani Smith is the author of The Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life That Matters (Crown). She writes about psychology, culture, and relationships. Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal,New York Times, Time, The Atlantic, and other publications.

Emily is also a columnist for The New Criterion, as well as an editor at the Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, where she manages the Ben Franklin Circles project, a collaboration with the 92nd Street Y and Citizen University to build meaning in local communities.

Born in Zurich, Switzerland, Emily grew up in Montreal, Canada. She graduated from Dartmouth College and earned a master of applied positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Building Communities That Inspire Connection

In this episode, we are talking about community and connection. Consider this, most businesses rise and fall based on the strength and depth of connection they build with employees, partners, and even their customers. Many of us don’t give a lot of thought about building a structure that can create a sense of belonging within our broader community and the micro-communities that form as a result of doing business.

Building that belonging takes work and strong leadership and commitment. Listen carefully to this episode and learn some of the principles that create and maintain those connections.

Some of the ideas we touch on that make strong communities

Boundaries

Space and safety

Implicit and explicit values

Creating paths to growth

Leadership

Please listen and share your ideas and stories about communities.

Charles Vogl

An author and executive consultant, Charles Vogl uses principles drawn from more than 3000 years of community and spiritual tradition to teach others how to inspire powerful connections and produce the kind of change that lasts for generations. He works with leaders in technology, finance, media, government, and social good organizations to inspire powerful connections in critical relationships and create cultures of belonging.The Art of Community

Making a difference has always been a key part of Charles’ life. In his early 20s, he volunteered full time at a homeless shelter in Santa Ana, California, before entering the Peace Corps and relocating to northern Zambia. There, he witnessed inspirational community in the face of extreme poverty, as neighbors with very little shared with those who had even less. Charles then moved to New York City to become a PBS filmmaker, producing documentaries including 2006’s “New Year Baby,” which chronicled the lives of Cambodian genocide survivors becoming Americans. The film won numerous honors including Amnesty International’s prestigious “Movies That Matter” award. He also volunteered as a labor organizer, working to empower abused workers in the restaurant industry.

Charles received his B.S. from the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California and a Master of Divinity at Yale University. A regular guest lecturer at several Yale departments, his first book, “The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging”, was recently published by Berrett-Koehler. Building on the concept that community and belonging can be developed through time-tested ideas and rituals, the book is a guide to creating and fostering meaningful cultures of belonging that benefit individuals and humanity.

Charles lives in Oakland, California, with his wife Socheata. He includes surviving a plane crash, a spitting cobra attack, and acute malaria (all in one year) among his life-changing experiences.

Why do we connect with stories?

In todays episode I talk with the Noah Rosenberg, CEO of Narratively. We talk about his journey from an on the street reporter for the New York Times, GQ, Salon, Wall Street Journal, as well as many other news outlets. How he is building a business built completely around in-depth human stories.

Listen to how Noah grew and incubated his idea. How he was able to connect with an incredible array of jounralists from all over the world.

What is it that we like about storytelling?

How storytelling helps us learn about ourselves.

How Narratively creates very emotional stories.

How their niche is evolving and how they are presenting their content the way that fits the story.

How they have built one of the most engaged audiences on the web.

Noah talks about his view on the future of publishing and how brands of all sizes can use storytelling to connect with their customers in a way that is much more engaging.

Did you like this story? I would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below.

Noah Rosenberg is the founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of Narratively, an award-winning digital publication and content studio devoted to ordinary people with extraordinary stories. Narratively has over 2,000 leading freelancers in its global contributors network and was named one of TIME’s “50 Best Websites” and Columbia Journalism Review’s “11 Best Experiments in Journalism.” Narratively Creative, the company’s creative agency, produces content and strategy for partners ranging from GE to SundanceTV, Expedia, Squarespace, Pernod Ricard and CBS, among many others. Previously, Rosenberg was a full-time freelancer for The New York Times in print, photography, and video, and he has also worked for CBS News’ documentary production unit; was a Wall Street Journal video correspondent and writer/photographer from the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa; and a product manager at Univision Interactive Media. Rosenberg was also head of digital at The Queens Courier newspaper group, where he pioneered the company’s use of video and multimedia and was founding editor-in-chief of Long Island City Courier Magazine. His storytelling has been featured by GQ, Salon, New York magazine, and New York Public Radio, among other outlets, and he was a 2012 fellow at the City University of New York’s Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism.